Biography
LadyLau was born January 13th 1985 as Laura ten Hoedt in IJsselstein, as youngest of three kids. At a very early age it was obvious that she had a musical talent. When she was four, she could sing along with chansons on the radio in perfect phonetic French. At the age of nine, her parents encouraged her to take keyboard lessons. After a couple of years she decided to switch to the piano, which offered her even more abilities to play. At seventeen, she started with singing lessons.
Music soon became a very big part of her life, in school (where she took extra music courses) and outside school. First she amused herself (and her family and neighbours) with playing and singing existing pop songs, later she started writing her own songs. Music became her passion and a way of letting her feelings out.
When the moment came for her to choose a college, she searched for a way to combine her interest in psychology and her passion for music. She found that combination in music therapy, at the School of the Arts in Enschede, where she started studying in 2003. During the four years of study, she got to work with several client populations, such as geriatrics and youth psychiatry. She successfully graduated in June 2007 and is now one of the first Bachelors of Music Therapy in Holland. All the while she expanded her musical repertoire, in music styles as in instruments. She sang classical, musical and jazz pieces and trained her improvising skills in singing, piano playing and on percussion instruments.
In her free time she participated in an amateur musical production (Musical Madness) and was a soprano for the gospel choir Benediction (Enschede) for 3,5 years.
Through the internet she met other musicians as well and thanks to one of them (Joop de Rooij), she got the opportunity to record a professional demo at Joost van den Broek’s homestudio. In December 2006 she went to the studio to record four of her own compositions. These songs were released on the demo ‘EP1’.
Since the release of the demo, several musicians approached her to join in on different projects: 'Elemental Journey' (NL), 'VoXager' (Germany) and ‘Escapedia’ (Norway). She's also participated in the tribute bands 'Team of Passion' (Stream of Passion fanmeet, January 2007) and 'Ayreonotes' (Ayreon fanmeet, September 2007) and worked together with Ian Parry and the Consortium Project.
In January ’08 she joined the stage with Arjen Lucassen and Marjan Welman for a surprise acoustic performance at Velvet Music Store Delft. In September ’08 she hit the stage as keyboard player for the band Dial at IJsselpop.
As a solo, LadyLau has performed at several stages in Holland, such as De Pul in Uden, Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, Grand Café Vyssotski Amersfoort and the Fulco Theatre in IJsselstein. She performed at several festivals, Lorelei Festival, Willems Wondere Weiland, Kultjurloop, De Kei van Amersfoort and Gluren bij de Buren.
Her most memorable performance was the livingroomconcert at famous Dutch singer Marco Borsato's home.
In February 2009, LadyLau released her first album “Sense” herself (under a Creative Commons license). This concept album speaks about the senses: how misunderstandings arise in communication when people don’t listen well and mix up audio-oriented and visual-oriented messages. It’s about how every sense can be experienced as a stand-alone signal. And how, if you’ve heard those stories on the album, all those senses together can give you an experience that arises above the sum of the five.
Projects
LadyLau has contributed to the following projects:
Elemental Journey: this project by Rik Bruineman made a quickstart, when the projectmembers (he invited himself) Joop de Rooij, Marjan Welman, Bram de Wachter and Laura, decided to surprise Rik with a fully produced version (by Joost van den Broek) of the song “Project X”. This song ensured a very promising future for this project!
VoXager: a science-fiction minded project from Germany, started up by Helge Kautz, writer of the novel "Farnham's Legend". The music will also be the soundtrack for a sf simulation computer game, for now called "X - beyond the frontier".
Escapedia: a progressive melodic metal act. The music is inspired by metaphysics, congnition and mind. Escapedia was created by Andreas Ravnestad, who is also the main composer and producer of this music.
Dial: a band that originally started off as a project back in 2003, founded by musicians Rommert v/d Meer, Liselotte Hegt and Kristoffer Gildenlöw. These creative minds wanted to combine their talents and just make music, all sorts of music. In 2006 Dial released the album ‘Synchronized’ and they have since joined the stage with Lana Lane, Kingfisher Sky and Riverside.
BlackOrchidx: soloproject of the English producer and composer Ali Campbell.
Previous performances
08-07-2010: Industrieele Groote Club A'dam, Int. Women Conference
03-07-2010: Culemborg, High Tea Elisabethwomen
18-06-2010: IJsselstein, charity concert Child and World
13-06-2010: IJsselstein, multicultural market
06-06-2010: Café Momfer de Mol Den Haag, Podium X
12-04-2010: RTV9 IJsselstein, 150th anniversary radioshow
21-03-2010: seats2meet.com Utrecht, TaartTweetup
15-03-2010: University for Humanistics
27-02-2010: De Pul Uden, Benefit for Haiti
19-02-2010: Groenekan, art-concert with Mieke Siemons
14-02-2010: Felix Meritis Amsterdam, Be The Change Action Day
07-02-2010: Restaurant Pinokkio Strijen, Cultinair Café
23-12-2009: Huiskamerconcert Marco Borsato
07-11-2009: Leiden, Dag van de Dialoog
31-10-2009: IJsselstein, Taalmaatjesproject Vluchtelingenwerk
29-08-2009: Zeewolde, Lorelei Festival
04-07-2009: Amersfoort, Willems Wondere Weiland
13-05-2009: Seats2Meet.com Utrecht, Fris in je Hoofd Lente Event
07-05-2009: Seats2meet.com Utrecht, bedrijfslancering Xilia
25-04-2009: Marktzicht Amersfoort, Kultjurloop 2009
09-04-2009: Seats2Meet.com Utrecht, Mindz Easter MeetUp
06-04-2009: RTV9 IJsselstein, 100ste jubileum radioprogramma
25-02-2009: Fulco Theater IJsselstein, albumrelease “Sense”
21-02-2009: Grand Café Vyssotski Amersfoort, albumrelease “Sense”
20-02-2009: Seats2Meet.com Utrecht, albumrelease “Sense”
27-01-2009: Seats2Meet.com Utrecht, bedrijfslancering Coachboulevard
14-12-2008: Amersfoort, Gluren bij de Buren 2008
11-10-2008: P3 Purmerend, Ayreon fanmeet 2008
20-09-2008: IJsselpop Festival IJsselstein, with Dial
20-06-2008: Gothic Metal Palace Festival, Ian Parry’s Consortium Project
26-04-2008: Grand Café Vyssotski Amersfoort, Kultjurloop 2008
10-04-2008: Boothill Saloon Amersfoort, voorronde Kei van Amersfoort
26-01-2008: Velvet Music Store Delft, Ayreon “01011001” release
09-10-2007: Music Café Opus Four Gorinchem, acoustic open podium
15-09-2007: JC de Valk Amsterdam, Ayreonotes, Ayreon fanmeet
30-03-2007: Theater Borra Amersfoort, Borra’s open Podium
28-01-2007: De Peppel Zeist, Team of Passion, Stream of Passion fanmeet
LMCreative
LMCreative is the company that not only organises LadyLau's activities, it also offers professional training and coaching. Laura's expertise in training embodies handling conflicts, communication and teambuilding, in coaching she also focuses on stage performance, presentation and training skills, as well as group and system dynamics, communication and conflictmanagement skills. Moreover, Laura is actively involved in several networks for professionals with their own company, like the CoachingCarrousel and Mindz.com.